Colgate Escapes Omission Claims In Lead Toothpaste Action

By Jonathan Capriel

Several consumers saw their claims trimmed or were booted entirely from a proposed class action accusing Colgate-Palmolive Co. of allowing their toothpastes to become tainted with lead and mercury, with a Manhattan federal judge suggesting a third-party study and other testing that all buyers relied on proved very little.

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Judge Voids DOT Freeze On NY-NJ Gateway Tunnel Funds

By Linda Chiem

A Manhattan federal judge on Monday barred the Trump administration from freezing funds for New York and New Jersey's $16 billion rehabilitation of aging commuter train tunnels under the Hudson River, saying the administration's unilateral cancellation of federally obligated grant funds was unlawful.

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Former NJ AG Pushes To End Suit Over Tossed RICO Case

By George Woolston

Former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin asserts that a lawsuit from a former CEO indicted in New Jersey's now-dismissed criminal racketeering case against South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III squarely implicates the protections afforded to prosecutors.

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NJ Panel Backs Wage Representative Suit Without Class Cert.

By MJ Koo

A New Jersey appeals court ruled Monday that workers can pursue representative wage actions under state law without meeting the requirements for a formal class action, while partly scaling back the time period for which back wages can be sought.

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Law Firm Must Face Lowenstein Sandler's Malpractice Suit

By Jake Maher

A New Jersey state appellate panel gave Lowenstein Sandler LLP the green light to pursue a $750,000 malpractice suit against law firm Trif & Modugno LLC in a ruling Monday that Lowenstein Sandler did not miss the deadline to file a required affidavit.

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High Court OKs Late-Arriving Ballot Counts

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld Mississippi's law allowing state election officials to count mail-in ballots that arrive up to five days after Election Day, paving the way for the Magnolia State and 14 others, along with the District of Columbia, to count late-arriving ballots in this year's midterm elections.

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26 States Sue To Nix Medicaid Work Rule For Medically Frail

By Rae Ann Varona

More than two dozen states sued the Trump administration Monday in Massachusetts federal court in a bid to strike down new Medicaid work requirements for certain enrollees, saying the administration did not consider the consequences the requirements would have on vulnerable Medicaid enrollees.

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Brief

Insurers Seek NJ Mass Tort For No Surprises Act Suits

By George Woolston

Five of the largest health insurers in the Garden State have asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to designate 160 pending cases seeking the enforcement of alleged independent dispute resolution payment determinations issued under the federal No Surprises Act as multicounty litigation, according to a notice to the Bar Association.

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Justices Toss 3rd Circ. Pot Gun Ruling, Leave 5th Circ. Intact

By Sam Reisman

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday disposed of two cases questioning whether a federal law barring users of marijuana from lawful gun ownership runs afoul of the Second Amendment, following the justices' recent ruling on a similar matter.

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3rd Circ. Won't Hear Appeal In Fatal Osprey Crash Suit

By Mike Curley

The Third Circuit on Monday denied a petition from the families of eight U.S. service members killed in a V-22 Osprey crash in November 2023 who sought to appeal the dismissal of their state court claims against The Boeing Co., Bell Textron Inc. and Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. over the crash.

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3rd Circ. Preview: DuPont Pensions, Detainees' Court Access

By Carla Baranauckas

An appeal testing the limits of ERISA fiduciary liability goes before the Third Circuit in July when DuPont and Corteva seek to overturn a district court ruling that a corporate spinoff damaged employees' retirement benefits. The court will also hear argument on whether heavy equipment giant Caterpillar forced a competitor out of business by pressuring a vendor. Here are some highlights from the court's July calendar.

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Justices Won't Review Yellow Corp. Ch. 11 Pension Liabilities

By Clara Geoghegan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected defunct trucking giant Yellow Corp.'s appeal of a bankruptcy court decision that it owes billions of dollars in retirement fund withdrawal liability, despite a pandemic-era pension fund stimulus package.

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Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

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Justice Jackson Tops High Court Book Earnings In 2025

By Ryan Boysen

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made nearly $1.2 million in book royalties last year, bringing her total to $4.14 million and making her the most highly compensated author on the high court, according to financial disclosure forms released Monday.

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Judge Limits Vegas Trip For BigLaw Insider Trading Defendant

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal magistrate judge said Monday a defendant described by prosecutors as a "lynchpin" in the BigLaw insider trading case must limit a planned visit to Las Vegas next month to just two nights, saying she also has "concerns about the validity" of a financial statement he provided to obtain a federal defender.

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Harris Beach Murtha To Combine With Peabody & Arnold

By Christine DeRosa

Harris Beach Murtha Cullina PLLC is set to expand its footprint in the Northeast through a combination with Boston firm Peabody & Arnold LLP.

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Texas Supreme Court Weighs New Rules To Tackle AI Misuse

By Lynn LaRowe

The Texas Supreme Court has proposed rule changes intended to address the misuse of artificial intelligence, including outlining possible sanctions and requiring signatories to attest to a filing's accuracy, just as a recent state bar survey showed AI use among Lone Star State lawyers more than doubling since 2024.

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Analysis

Volatility May Follow As Justices Make Agency Firings Easier​​​​​​​

By Sarah Jarvis

The policies and enforcement priorities of federal agencies may fluctuate more rapidly based on who is president, as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's Monday decision finding that presidents have unlimited authority to fire members of independent agencies, experts told Law360.

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Analysis

The End Of An 'Independent' FTC

By Bryan Koenig

Federal Trade Commission members, responsible for merger review, antitrust enforcement, consumer protection safeguards and rulemaking, and industry analysis, no longer serve at a remove from presidential authority, thanks to Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could dramatically remake the FTC and other independent agencies.

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Analysis

High Court Gives Fed Independence A 'Fragile' Reprieve

By Jon Hill

The U.S. Supreme Court has thrown its weight behind Federal Reserve independence by rejecting President Donald Trump's bid to immediately oust Fed Gov. Lisa Cook, but experts say the fight over central bank control may not be finished — just moving to a new phase.

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DC Ethics Counsel Conflicted In Ethics Case, DOJ Atty Says

By Emily Sawicki

A former interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., is urging the D.C. federal court to disqualify the District of Columbia ethics counsel from pursuing an ethics case against him, arguing that the attorney and another lawyer from his office are conflicted and that their impartiality is in question.

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McCarter & English Missed Key Docs In $20M Loans, Court Told

By Brian Steele

A McCarter & English LLP attorney botched two multimillion-dollar loan deals by failing to secure an ironclad repayment obligation from a New York town or include mandatory documents in the closing packages, a Connecticut state court heard Monday as a long-awaited malpractice trial got underway.

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Sotomayor Says 7th Circ. 'Clearly Wrong' In Immunity Ruling

By Parker Quinlan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to take up a case over whether qualified immunity was correctly granted to two Wisconsin prison guards who left a naked man in an often freezing cold cell for 23 hours, drawing a dissent from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

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Analysis

Justices Look To Shed Light On Jury Role In Pepsi TM Battle

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a trademark fight over PepsiCo's "Mtn Dew Rise Energy" drink gives the justices a chance to clarify when juries, rather than judges, should decide whether a mark is inherently strong — a narrow question that attorneys say could affect how often infringement cases survive summary judgment.

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Ex-Pa. AG, Trump Defense Firm Want Malpractice Claims Axed

By James Boyle

An elections nonprofit is seeking to keep alive its malpractice claim against the former acting attorney general of Pennsylvania and his firm, van der Veen Hartshorn & Levin, filing a quick response over the weekend to a motion to dismiss its amended complaint in Pennsylvania federal court.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled disputes involving controlling stockholders, executive compensation, take-private transactions, books and records demands and board governance, while the Delaware Supreme Court issued decisions in two corporate records cases previously decided in the Chancery.

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